The Iconic Dante

The new issue of TAC just came in, and I was knocked flat to see the cover! I didn’t know my essay would be the cover piece. Thanks, Dan & Co.

Readers, don’t forget we start blogging our way through the Purgatorio on Monday. One canto per day, through Lent (there are 33 cantos). Monday and Tuesday will be preparatory discussion; we start with Canto I on Ash Wednesday. Get your copy of Purgatorio this weekend! I don’t care which translation you choose; just get one that you like.

congradulations. About reading and discussing Dante on line I have mixed feelings. Of course what better than Dante to think about and read and discuss (and get rid of pro or anti SSM stuff for a while). However, when it comes to great religious and mystical works, I think one should be careful to avoid the tendency to exteriorize everything (a tendency which is so prevalent among Americans). One should be very careful and try first to absorb the meaning internally. So says the knowledgeable mohammad whose knowledge is an see with the depth of an inch (or so)! 😉

Congratulations on the cover! I will be taking part in reading Purgatorio and checking what you have to say regularly. I already read Purgatorio using the Hollander translation, but I bought the Musa translation on your recommendation and will reading that. I also appreciate your sharing the secondary works on the Commedia you are reading in preparation for your book. I own that same copy of Auerbach’s book and have decided to read it now! I am almost finished with Paradiso (I am on canto 26) and want to dig deeper into some secondary materials. You probably have many secondary sources already, but you might want to check out Peter Hawkins’s Dante’s Testaments (I have not read it, but I own it), as well as The Cambridge Companion to Dante. There are many wonderful essays in the latter book about various themes in Dante’s work, and it has a host of reference material.

In the Chinatown comments, Chris (February 28, 2014 at 12:27 pm) wrote some interesting things about the Orthodox view on sin, which led me to look it up. In the articles I found (e.g. <a href="http://www.orthodoxcanada.org/comentaries/natureofsin.htm&quot; Archbishop Lazar: on the nature of sin ), it appeared that the Orthodox view is radically different from the Dantean picture, so I’m wondering how you reconcile the two. In particular, Archbishop Lazar doesn’t seem to have much use for purgatory.
Hope to learn more about it in the read-along.